The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-199

Chapter 199: The Gnarled Grove

The Gnarled Grove was a mysterious place.

Ecologically very distinct from the outside world, the grove gave people the illusion that they had entered an alien forest. There was no green whatsoever. All the vegetation glowed with a metallic lustre of fuchsia, which looked a bit flirtatious at first glance, but mysterious after subsequent looks. Most of the plants were tall and gnarled. Also, there was a kind of bush as tall as a human, growing like a flame in a spiral. Under the thick bushes, on the compost, strange fungi grew across the terrain. They looked a bit like a combination of mushrooms and moss: a large coat of lavender-coloured fungi covered the rocks and the surface of other plants with umbrella-like structures growing abruptly above them. These fungi grew strong and bright in dark corners. But, it is not certain whether the rule of thumb applied here: the better it looks, the more poisonous it is. The ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves and other dead plants. All the plants grew naturally and wantonly, indicating the lack of disturbance from humans.

In addition to the shorter, secondary vegetation, there was only one kind of tree in the Gnarled Grove: the tall, gnarled and broad-leafed tree. Its bark was iron gray. The lower trunk had no branches and grew straight up in a helical shape but at the upper trunk, branches burst out explosively. The crown of the tree was full of broad, oval-shaped, fuschia leaves. These trees were abundant in the forest and looked the same—theie gnarls, twigs and branches were all carbon copies of one another, except that their sizes may have been different. Hao Ren had spotted these unusual characteristics from the beginning. He studied the crown of two different trees and they were exactly the same.

The group moved on via the “official route” in the Gnarled Grove. The Church had spent enormous manpower and resources to build this road several hundred years ago. Generations of people had contributed their efforts in maintaining this narrow road. Since several hundred years had past, the ferocious monsters in the Gnarled Grove had gotten used to the existence of the road and they would stay away from the watchhouses along the road: the road had become part of the ecological system, even the forest gave way to it.

This had provided a buffer zone to travellers who traversed through the grove. As long as they did not stray away from the magic formations lined along the road, they would be safe.

“These trees have no scientific name, they’re just a part of the huge Gnarled Grove, like fur on a beast. Anyway, mercenaries and adventurers call them ‘spiral trees’. They look like that, don’t they?” Becky had noticed Hao Ren staring at the strange-shaped trees, so she took the initiative to explain. “All these trees are connected as one. Their roots are entangled and grow together while the exposed parts receive sunlight. A group of elf scholars studied the Gnarled Grove back in the day. It’s said that before the world was destroyed, the Gnarled Grove was the goddess’ backyard. Back then, Lorrisa, the elf mage-emperor, stole the life gene from the Gnarled Grove and used a root from the tree to clone the tree of life. However, the tree of life was destroyed by fire due to the end of the world. Only its charred remains were left. It’s hard to tell how similar they looked like now.”

“You say that the entire forest’s a plant..,” said Nangong Wuyue. She snuffed. The high humidity in the grove made the siren feel more comfortable. “…but, it’s a huge forest. I wonder how much of it’s hidden underground?”

“No idea. But, it’s said that the roots of the Gnarled Grove extend all the way to the centre of Beinz Blood Lake in the west, and the bottom of Dragonspine Ridge in the east. This whole area was built upon the roots of the Gnarled Grove. There’s a legend that some 100 years ago, some dwarf miners tried to mine chrysotile in Dragonspine Ridge; they were digging a tunnel and while they were digging, they stumbled upon a huge black root near the Blood Lake. Half of them went mad. The Church came up with the explanation that residues of wrath from the goddess, who ended the world were trapped underneath. It would take a few thousand years before the residues could be cleaned up by the forest. Since then, mining hasn’t been allowed in the west of the mountain range. You need permission from the Church even if you want to extract well water there.

Hao Ren was amazed by these giant trees. It was hard to imagine that there was a massive life form hibernating underground just by looking at the surface. All he could see were some exposed roots, functioning as its breathing organ. But one thing was sure, and Becky was right, there was no credible explanation to the amazingly identical trees, except that they were not of natural occurrence but organs of a large living body.

“Please excuse me for a minute.” Something suddenly came to Hao Ren’s mind. He took his pot and walked off the road. Becky asked, “Where’re you going? It’s dangerous!”

Hao Ren waved and said, “I won’t be long. And, I won’t go far.”

Becky was not convinced. Lily then tried to explain. “He’s just taking a leak. He’s got a kidney problem…”

Vivian was pretty shocked. “How do you know that?”

“Doesn’t he have DI, diabetes insipidus since we visited the village of the mountain people a few days ago?

Everyone was speechless.

Maybe the maiden’s mind had a little short circuit and she was still stuck in that particular moment.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren had detoured from the official route, out of Becky’s sight. However, he did not dare go too far off; although there were magic lamps made from divine crystals on both sides of the official route, the area outside the energy range of the magic lamps was still a world of monsters. He went to the back of a shrub. As he unlid the pot, Lil Pea poked her head out, splashing water as if she was greeting him.

Hao Ren used his finger to pet the little mermaid’s tiny head as sign of affection. He then spoke to the MDT, “Get out of there. I need you to scan the surroundings in high power mode.”

“Now you sound like you mean business,” the MDT whined as it got out of the pot. Lil Pea looked on. It rose in the air and glowed with a blue light.

The high powered radar scanned the ground and analysed the underground structure.

“A massive root system can be detected, just like the maiden said—the forest is a single living organism.” The MDT started showing a hologram of the entire Gnarled Grove. The stunning images shocked him: the ground was filled with a web of roots, which radiated outwards for many kilometres. The roots were entangled together and formed a giant, compressed, gully-filled, oval-shaped ball. It was a little like a deformed walnut.

And, it was disgusting.

The MDT explained, “If the roots disappear, a large hole as big as a hundred kilometres across will be left behind and everything above it will be swallowed. Now you know how massive this thing is. But that’s not all, the maiden is right about one more thing too: the root system hasn’t just extended under the Blood Lake, but past it. It has almost reached the plain and mountain range in the far west. But strangely, half of the roots have died, probably because of soil problems in the crystal plain.”

“It’s kind of hard to imagine that what’s underground is so much more massive than what’s above ground.” Hao Ren was totally overwhelmed by a feeling of awe. He was not awed by the ancient miracle but, by nature itself—just like the nature of Raven 12345.

“There’s another thing that may be worthy of investigation,” said the MDT all of a sudden. “The entire forest…no, it fact, it’s the entire Beinz Blood Lake region; the ecosystem is incompatible with the outside world.”

Hao Ren was at a loss. “Incompatible?”

“This is the topography of the region.” The MDT spun the hologram around so that they could have a bird’s eye view. “You can see the entire region of the Beinz Blood Lake is a closed system. Dragonspine Ridge in the east, the sacred mountain of the mountain people in the west, the grand canyon in the north, and the ocean in the south; all these places are natural dividers to the ecosystem. That’s how Beinz Blood Lake became an ecosystem on its own. The plants in this area—of what I’ve detected so far—will not grow outside of the region. They have a unique way of using nutrients, which can only be done in the environment provided by the Beinz Blood Lake.”

“Totally unadaptable to the outside world? They wouldn’t survive at all?”

The MDT affirmed categorically, “Not at all.”

Hao Ren was becoming more curious about the Beinz Blood Lake.

The lake was sustaining an ancient ecosystem. But, what was inside the lake?